SNOW HILL — The Greene County Future Farmers of America chapter was granted $7,500 to boost members’ improvements to the community.

The new funds are a way to celebrate the county’s FFA Week celebration this week, which is a few days sooner than the national FFA Week from next week.

During Monday’s Board of Education meeting, Ray Scott Spence gave an overview of the $5,000 grant from the state FFA association and requested an additional $2,500 donation be accepted. Both were presented to the county chapter Wednesday.

“It’s going to be really exciting,” said Spence, FFA Advisor and Greene Central High School agriculture instructor, about projects to be paid for with the funds. “It’s going to give FFA members out there in the community and give them some real-world experience working agriculture.”

The chapter will perform landscaping at Elaney Woods Farmer’s Market in Snow Hill and installation work around the community. Previous FFA community involvements include a Veteran’s Day banquet and members donating plants to seniors in Greene County.

Spence said nearly 120 high school students have enrolled in the agricultural education program at Greene Central, with 65 as FFA members.

FFA is a national organization that provides agricultural education to children across the nation from grades seven through 12. There are more than 550,000 student members in 7,498 chapters.

Getting the local agricultural education may come back to benefit you.

While the $2,500 donation was from the agriculture business Monsanto, it was a Snow Hill farmer who won the check in an America’s Farmer Grow Communities competition and chose to award Greene County FFA as recipients.

“We were, of course, very grateful,” Spence said. “It’s important because we’re training future leaders … who are going to be in the agricultural industry (and) who are going to be responsible for producing our state and nation’s food and fiber.”

Of the hundreds of thousands of FFA members, 71 percent live in rural and farm areas, 19 percent live in small towns and 10 percent live in urban and suburban areas.

Spence said a striking statistic he often shares is one American farmer feeds 168 people on average.

“I’m blown away by that every day,” he said. “I try to make sure my students are carrying an appreciation for agriculture out of my classroom everyday. I try to make sure my kids have a little appreciation for what farmers in the community do.”

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.

BREAKOUT BOX

Future Farmers of AmericaMembership Statistics:

There are 557,318 FFA members in 7,498 chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands